The diminutive i2 GPS unit is one of the smallest available measuring just 76 x 69 x 55 mm with a small but bright 1.7" TFT screen. It attaches to your windscreen using a sturdy sucker mechanism and the low weight of the i2 means that it doesn't wobble or bounce and feels like it will stay stuck on like an enthusiastic limpet for years to come. Power is provided from the standard curly 12 volt cord or if you choose from 2 double A battery's (the unit will also run from 24 volts, cable not supplied).

Power up the little i2 and within a minute it had got its first TTF (time to fix) and had located us in the office car park. So time to put in a destination and get going. A few moments of thumping the small screen like a lunatic and we noticed the lack of touch screen, which is hardly surprising given the lack of real-estate afforded by the 1.7" TFT. Instead you need to use the little wheel mounted under the screen which rotates round controlling all manner of features but most importantly enables us to work through the alphabet to enter the destination. Now this is painful in the extreme if you were to enter the address line by line as some systems force you too, however the Garmin supports the full 8 digit UK postcode making the wheel a viable use interface.

In order to make a SatNav unit so cheap a few things have gone apart from the touch screen, in fact we thought there was a fault with the colour on the i" until we realised it is a monochrome screen!  We'd have thought that it was almost more expensive to source a monochrome TFT screen than colour, but obviously not. To be fair to the chaps at Garmin it doesn't really make too much difference as the screen is clear to read and being just 1.7" you hardly use it anyway during navigation.

With an address set in the Navteq maps at the ready and the London rush hour to contend with we set off with the i2 in full control. The chosen route was spot on and we were soon belting along A roads with the Garmin voice prompts telling us to turn right and left. The small unit does restrict the speaker size and subsequently the volume is quite low and nowhere near the levels of other mainstream SatNav units, in fact more on a par with some of the PDA style units.

En route we found the i2 to be reliable in its timing of directions and the screen although small does provide a clear 3D display of the road ahead which is useful as a backup to the audio directions. Our first test journey was completed with the minimum of fuss and the unit proved itself to be more than capable of basic navigation.

Our next few tests were designed to try and upset the little Nav unit. So when told to take the M25 we ignored it and took at a back road (or escape route) to see if the unit would pick up on our change of plan and decide to try and turn us round. To our surprise it did pick up what we'd done very quickly and didn't over react by screaming at us to "perform a U turn" instead it tried to re route us back around the next roundabout and when we ignored that it then plotted a route to the next junction on the motorway instead. So 10 / 10 for the diversion skills of the i2, in fact much much better than many of the more expensive navigation systems.

The mapping data is held on a  256mb memory card and the units as shipped for UK customers cover England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, plus you can import POI databases and some are pre installed showing things like cash points and petrol stations. These POI can be used to navigate too or as in the case with the speed camera one be used to let you know where the pesky Gatso's are. We tested the i2 with the POI uploaded and the camera map from pocket GPS all worked fine and the latest database from November the 8th imported perfectly.

A week with the tiny unit proved a real eye opener, the small form factor means it does not take up a huge expanse of your dashboard and doesn't obstruct the road too much either. The battery life on the 2 x AA battery's proved to be around 6 hours, which would be fine in an emergency or for the occasional use in another car. Another advantage of the size is it is less obvious to thieves as it can be tucked away in the corner of your dash so easily.

We have been spoilt by having so many expensive full colour large screen systems to use and we doubt that we could really live with the i2 full time as it just feels like a backwards step compared to the revised TomTom One. However the week did prove that in pure basic navigation terms the baby Garmin is more than a match for Tom-Tom's cheapest unit.

What the i2 lacks are almost all the extras, there are no add on traffic modules, no Bluetooth data or phone connections, no touch screen, no Mp3 playback, no photos, no SiRF Star III chipset. However this is not what the i2 is all about, what Garmin set out to achieve was a budget navigator that retained the basic map replacement features without the excess baggage many Nav systems have started to accumulate.

In this respect and with a price tag of £89 Garmin get a 100% recommendation for the i2 from us, it is simple to use, reliable and accurate without the blubber bolted to so many other so called budget systems. If you are looking for a basic replacement for the older tatty atlas in your glove box but don't want to splash too much cash the Garmin i2 is exactly what you need.

More Garmin Reviews

Published - 18/11/2006

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